Police Investigating Possible Poisonings

NEWPORT NEWS — City police are investigating whether a man convicted of poisoning six paramedics in Illinois also poisoned other people here, an Ohio prosecutor said Thursday.

Ed Morgan, chief prosecuting attorney for Franklin County, Ohio, said he sent police here a 60-page report on Michael Swango, 34.

Morgan said his office unsuccessfully tried to prosecute Swango in the deaths of patients at Ohio State University Hospital while Swango was a resident at the hospital from July 1983 to June 1984.

Newport News police denied Thursday they were investigating Swango.

"There have been no criminal complaints," said Sgt. Mike Brewer. "There's no evidence that he committed a crime.

On Wednesday, though, Newport News Detective James O. Williamson told a reporter from the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch that he was conducting an investigation.

That paper's story said Swango worked at an unspecified placement center here as recently as May, when three co-workers were allegedly poisoned. Two of them did not require medical attention, but the third is still being tested, according to the paper.

Quincy, Ill., Police Sgt. G.L. Scott said his department also sent copies of files to police in Newport News. Swango was convicted there May 3, 1985, of six counts of aggravated battery in the non-fatal arsenic poisonings of six paramedics.

He was sentenced to five years in prison and released Aug. 21, 1987, because of good behavior, said Nic Howell, public information officer of the Illinois Department of Corrections. While on parole, he first asked for permission to visit Hampton on Oct. 2, 1987, Howell said.

Morgan said that besides sending the report to police here, "I gave them some advice on what to look for when they search his apartment." When asked if he meant arsenic, he said, "That would be a good guess."

Swango was convicted of putting arsenic into the doughnuts, iced tea and coffee of paramedics he was working with in 1984, after being fired from the OSU hospital.

Morgan also said, "We discussed certain literature they should be looking for."

Police in Quincy found recipe cards in Swango's apartment explaining how to manufacture such poisons as cyanide and ricin. There was also a book, "The Poor Man's James Bond," detailing the advantages of arsenic as a poison.

Morgan tried to prosecute Swango after his conviction in Illinois. Officials at the OSU hospital investigated Swango in the death of seven patients who died while he worked there and cleared him in the deaths.